Bow-top for carriages



(No Model.) L. MURRAY.

BOW TOP FOR UARRIAGES.

Patented Dec. 27,1881.

WITNESSES Z2! fW Z flttornegi t A V l UNITED STATES PATENT Orrron.

LEVI MURRAY, OF CENTRE HALL, PENNSYLVANIA.

BOW-TOP FOR .CARRIAGES.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 251,626, dated December 27, 1881. Application filed June 17, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEVI MURRAY, of Gentre Hall, in the county of Centre and State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improved Bow-Top for Carriages; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification Figure 1 being a side view of a three-bow top for carriages and vehicles provided with my improvement, the view representing the top as raised or extended; Fig. 2, a side view of the same as when folded.

Like letters designate corresponding parts in both figures.

My invention consists in the combination, preferably with the middle bow of a carriagetop, of short bows hinged or pivoted respectively to the front and rear sides of the said middle how, the said short bows beingjointed near their hinge or pivot supports, and connected at points above the said joints by braces with the middle bow, substantially as hereinafter specified, whereby the leather top and trimmings are supported between the main bows, and yet are allowed to fold in between the said main bows, and the whole top is extended and folded in the usual way, and held extended by the usual top-joints.

In the drawings, A A represent the front and back bows of a three-bow carriage-top, and B the middle bow thereof. These are all of ordinary construction, and they have the they will assume oblique positions, substantially as shown in Fig. l, and support the toptrimmings D between the main bows, and also allow the main bows to be spread farther apart than usual, thus making a more extended carriage-top. These short bows are not only hinged or pivoted at their feet to the middle how, but are themselves jointed, as at b b, at some'distance from the hinge-pivots a a; and to these bows are hinged or pivoted, as at c 0, above the joints 1) b,'braces E E, which at their other ends are hinged or pivoted to the middle bow, as at d d, above the foot-pivots a a of the short bows. The length and positions of these braces, and the relative positions of thejoints and pivots a a, b b, c c, and d d, are such that when the top is folded the short bows will not only shut close down by the sides of the middle how, but will drop considerably below the main bows, and thus be entirely, out of the way of the leather and trimmings of the carriage-top, which fold without hindrance between the main bows, as indicated in Fig. 2.

These bows, thus arrangedand operating, work with perfect freedom, never interfering with the folding or extending of the carriagetop, and when raised, asin Fig. 1, though they arejointed at b 1), yet they are in a straight line, from which they cannot deviate, and thus are held securely and firmly on the dead-points of the said joints, which may be rule or elbow joints bending only downward. The bows likewise lie compact when the top is folded down, and are not in the way, and their ex pense is but little. An important advantage in their use is their perfect self adjustment, re-

quiring no care whateverin folding or extending the top.

What I claim as my invention is Thejointed short bows O O, hinged or pivoted. 

